These Are The Voyages Version2
by grimreaper's lost soul
Summary: A Jupiter class Carrier alongside a Brigid class Surveillance Cruiser are tossed head over ass in to a new verse. Only a scant few years have passed since the Iconian war, and newly appointed Fleet Admiral Spruce must seek out the answers why he and the two crews were sent here, and the only ones who can answer are a bunch of omnipotent jack off's known only as the Q continuum!
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hello to all my fans been a while since I've written something meaningful and I'm not going to make some bullshit excuse I just lost my muse to write. But after being laid off from work I've had a lot more time to think about what I can do while I look for another job and I finally got my muse back together after writing several drafts here it is this story will eventually replace my two Star Trek Online fanfics but I'll leave that for another time after I get a few other chapters uploaded if this one takes off! Oh and another thing all I own are my OC's anything else is owned by their respective owners references and all!... So please Enjoy this is GrimReapersLostSoul signing off.**

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The Federation of Planets have survived the Iconian War, however our losses have affected the entire Alpha and Beta Quadrants, we need to project our forces in such a way the enemies of the Federation will see that we're still here and that we're here to stay. – Admiral Beck (Section 31)

* * *

Stardate: 97215.25 [19th March 2420]  
Japori – Rator Sector Boarder

* * *

The U.S.S. Venator NCC-92990, a Jupiter class Fleet Carrier could be found adrift in space within a debris field currently she was in a counter clockwise lateral spin after her bow starboard thrusters were jammed open, breaches were abundant on multiple decks her crimson Leo pattern war paint had been scorched and blistered by torpedo and phaser impacts, out of her four nacelles two had been ruptured during combat and her impulse drives had taken a hammering.  
However in the end the Venator was still standing while her battlegroup and the Borg fleet that had engaged them had been destroyed, in a rather short lived but intense battle Daise and Virinat systems where an abnormally large temporal and highly unstable rift had formed.

Aboard the Venator's bridge the crew had been knocked unconscious while being launched from their posts, two unfortunate crewmen had been crushed by collapsing debris and fires continued to burn from exploded conduits, eps grids and overloaded consoles.  
The first to awaken from unconsciousness had been the ships second in command Captain Hstokk M'kellu a female tan furred Caitian donning the Kelvin verse Starfleet uniform all crewmen aboard the Venator wore, Hstokk hissed in pain as she used a nearby console to lift herself from the floor, standing at six foot on her lithe digitigrade legs and clawed bare feet, Hstokk quickly swept her keen eyes across the bridge looking for her charge she quickly located him.

Fleet Admiral Liam Spruce, a caucasian male human with dark brown military cropped hair, who donned a crisp white Kelvin Verse Admiral uniform which was snow scorched and covered in blood, the Admiral had been one of the few officers to climb to the rank of Fleet Admiral during the turmoil that had been the Iconian war personally being accredited for successfully causing the destruction of four Vonph Battleships and their supporting craft above Earth.  
Quickly making her way over to the downed Admiral she used what medical knowledge to quickly assess the Admiral's condition, seeing that his wounds were light and he was in no current danger Hstokk quickly made her way to the helms console and quickly removed the medical kit placed underneath it.  
Removing its contents she soon found what she had been looking for, smelling salts, by far the worst thing any Caitian could be subjected to due to their physiology she barred her fangs as she opened the repugnant case holding it to the Admirals nose.

* * *

Quickly launching myself upright at the burning sensation my nose was suffering from I found Captain Hstokk knelt beside me holding a case of smelling salts in one of her furred hands, while she was trying to seal the lid back onto the salts as her amber eyes watered. "Jesus Hstokk please tell me we got the number of that Unimatrix Dreadnought that hit us?" Hstokk quickly picked on my dry humour and cracked a small smile.

Forcing myself to stand up waving off Hstokk as she tried to assist me I closed my eyes for a scant few seconds. "Hstokk we need to wake up the crew, is there another case of smelling salts?" I asked quickly catching the case Hstokk had just sealed up, I nodded to the Captain as we made our way to each crewman, within minutes the bridge crew were back on their feet putting out fires and bringing the ships systems back in order, eventually reports were coming in as more crewmen were waking up on all decks assisting others that they found.

"Helm, Navigation correlate our last know position with this one, see if we ended up getting pulled into that temporal anomaly while we were unconscious, communications try and find out if we have a line with FltCom or NavWarCom if you can get me on a priority line." The three officers quickly got to work with a chorus of "Aye Sir!" between them, the Helmsmen was an Ensign Andorian Male named Shran however instead of the snow white hair all Andorian's were known for his was a rare grey, beside him sat a Female Klingon Junior Lieutenant Navigations officer with subtle head ridges and braided black hair all Klingons were known for.

As for the comms officer Lieutenant he was a Japanese human with cropped black hair and matching goatee beard, looking towards the view screen debris drifted past some fragments of Federation and Borg vessels impacted against the hull luckily the fragments were rather small compared to most of the other remains scattered about.

"Captain, Admiral, the Damage Response Teams have isolated the open thrusters and have restored some of our manoeuvring capabilities." Reported another female Caitian this one held the rank of Lieutenant while donning the traditional yellow uniform for engineers and operations crewmen.

"Thank you Lieutenant Hirowe." Responded Hstokk as she looked over her shoulder as she spoke to her fellow Caitian. "Helmsmen stabilise our position!" She barked out to the Andorian helmsmen who instantly followed through with her order.  
She soon realised that she had given an order without asking permission of her superior and looked rather abashed, blushing slightly as I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Go ahead Captain she's your ship, they're your crew, to be honest I thought you were scared to speak up." I smiled, before standing up. "I'll be in the ready room, come and get me if there is something to report, otherwise We'll rotate shifts every four hours."

I gestured to the command chair, Hstokk quickly made herself as presentable as she could before making her way to the command chair before saluting me, taking her seat back as I walked to the ready room.  
Making myself comfortable I grabbed the ready room's medical kit and took off my scorched and blood stained dress uniform shirt off and began fixing up any wounds I could by applying medi-patches and letting my colony of Borg nanites heal my wounds over the next coming hours, looking at the terminal I quickly logged in and began writing up an emergency report and began requesting that the department heads send a report to both myself and Captain Hstokk within the next four hours, before setting an alarm to wake me up in three and a half hours' time.

Quickly getting some shuteye I slept a dreamless sleep for a few hours, before being disturbed by my comm-badge chirping away, shaking away any grogginess I tapped the comm-badge answering the hail. "Admiral Spruce here." I answered waiting for a response. "Admiral this is Chief Engineer Wilder I wanted to report that the ships main reactor is coming online, and that primary power systems should become operational momentarily." Spoke a female Scotsman over the comm-badge. "That's excellent news Chief what's the state of our weapons and shields?" I asked. "Minimal to moderate sir, it could go either way considering weapons and shields might short out entire sections of the ship sir." Chief Engineer Wilder responded. "Keep me appraised Chief."

"Aye sir." The comm-badge cut off, looking towards the terminal I found I'd been woken fifteen minutes early, loosening up I quickly re-donned my dress uniform shirt on before making my way out to the bridge, which since I had left had become a lot more livelier since I had been in the ready room, the two deceased crewmen were being tended to by medical staff lifting them onto stretchers and being taken away, meanwhile engineers and operations crewmen were busying themselves repairing what could be done in a short amount of time, some new faces were dotting the posts of some of the bridge crew while Hstokk was busying herself with a data slate, quite possibly looking at the countless reports coming through.

"Admiral on the deck." One of the bridge crew shouted, before anyone could respond I quickly responded to the call. "Carry on!" Allowing the crew to keep to their duties, stepping up to the command chair I watched the female rub the bridge of her nose with her free hands thumb and forefinger. "Casualties'?" I asked. "Moderate everyone has bumps and scrapes for the most part but as far as its been confirmed 119 of the crew didn't make it, it's expected 27 more won't make the next couple of hours, all CMO T'vrell can do is ease their suffering as best as she can before they pass.  
Well shit, losing crew was always hard, but everyone signs onto Starfleet knowing the risks, it sucked balls but you always had to keep a stiff upper lip and lead with a clear head. "Any word on our position?" The face she gave me said it all. "That bad huh, well shit…. The anomaly?"

"Destabilised and dissipated well before I came too, sensors recorded a Borg sphere leaving the Unimatrix before the anomaly collapsed they cut their losses and ran, the good news is we'll have main power back online any second and we have survivors in the bigger wreckage, I'll have the Calisto's launched as soon as we can lower the primary blast door to the fore hanger." That was something to be sure, battlegroup X-ray consisted of two refit NX class Heavy Escorts, a Brigid class Multi mission Surveillance Cruiser and a single Sovereign class fleet Assault Cruiser refit, as well as the Venator as the battlegroups command vessel.  
"Did any of the ship survive in a decent enough state that we'll be able to salvage?" I asked hoping for a positive answer. "Luckily the Acclemator, our Brigid class surveillance cruiser survived relatively intact she lost a nacelle and took a real beating before the challenger took the worst of it." I nodded. "Have the Calisto's strip the Challenger once we've rescued everyone we can, have them find the Acclemator's nacelle hopefully the Borg nanites colonies can take care of the major repairs, seeing as there's plenty of material they can breakdown into resources I'd reckon we'll be here a week at the least."

At that moment the ships systems positively hummed as main power came back online. "Well Captain it's your turn to stand down for four hours rest up while you've got a chance I'll handle things from here."

* * *

Stardate: 97234.37 [26th March 2420]  
Un-Named Sector

* * *

 _Admiral's Personal Log: It's been one week since our skirmish with the Borg fleet on the Japori – Rator sector boarder we suffered mass casualties across the entirety of Battlegroup X-ray the USS Challenger USS Haven and USS Say My Name were complete losses, the USS Acclemator however was salvageable and has since been upgraded using the ablative armour of the Challenger and has been put under the command of Hstokk's former Commander Zodez a steadfast Klingon female who under my authority has been given a battlefield promotion to Captain, the survivors of the three lost ships have been allocated places to fill the losses of both ships and all those who died in the line of duty will be having a proper Federation Navy send off, the crews of the Venator and Acclemator need a new focus while I figure a way to get a hold of any Q from the Q continuum.  
As a personal side note Captain Hstokk and I seem to be bonding more so then should probably be allowed by Starfleet regulations but seeing as we could be here for some time I have taken the liberty to relax the regulations to those the USS Voyager Implemented during its foray through the Delta Quadrant, though this is only probationary if things get out of hand, the regular regulations will be put back in force, though if both crews can keep professional about it we shouldn't have a problem._

Walking to the bridge from my personal quarters, the repairs implemented by the nanites colonies aboard both the Venator and Acclemator had been completed as of a few hours ago it had been decided between Captains Hstokk and Zodez and I that the remains of the Borg fleet needed to be destroyed before we continued to seek out intelligent space faring life, since the odds were that Warp was an unfounded method of FTL to whatever this verse had as its substitute, stepping around the hustle of the main corridor to the nearest turbo-lift with my steaming cup of tea in my personal Darth Vader mug, I couldn't help but smirk as the Human crewmen laughed at the sight of it, as the computer proceeded to play the imperial march throughout the corridors where I walked.  
Even better when the ever crowded turbo-lift proceeded to play the cantina bands iconic song during the journey to the bridge, stepping onto the bridge the crew stood to attention. "Dark Lord of the Sith on the bridge." A human male Lieutenant barked out causing those who got the reference to chuckle. "Carry on, Lieutenant remind me to put a positive remark in your roster." I spoke as I walked past the yellow wearing operations officer. "Aye sir." He replied as he got back to work. "Captain, how go the preparations?"

"We'll be ready to send off the lost in the next system we reach, both the Venator and Acclemator have Quantum Torpedo's loaded and we have a positive lock on the remaining Borg debris Admiral." I nodded in response. "proceed with the clean-up Captain, then get us underway to the next system, it's about time we give the dead a proper send off." Hstokk nodded before replying. "Aye Sir." Both the Venator and Acclemator opened fire with a full spread of quantum torpedo's destroying any Borg remains in system before both the Venator and Acclemator jumped to the nearest system the advanced sensor suite of the Acclemator had mapped.

It would be another hour before both the Venator and Acclemator would drop out of warp in the system newly named Reach, Zodez Hstokk and I were stood amongst the vast majority of the crew leaving a skeleton crew to run the ship during the service while the Crew of the Acclemator watched the service via terminals and data-pad the spiritual preacher of the ship had set up various religious items on stands before the crew, those who had faiths or means of worship prayed while those who didn't held their silence in respect. "Please spiritual deities look after our fallen brothers and sisters as you and they watch over us during these coming trials."

After the crewmen muttered their respective prayer phrases, I looked left and right, an Idea of what to say already forming in my head as I recited one of the most Iconic speeches spoken in old media. "So. Say. We. All." The crew looked stunned but muttered the phrase. "So. Say. We. All." I barked again the crew picking up on my que replied with a bit more energy. "So. Say. We. All." I said again as I walked amongst the rows of dead towards the preacher. "So. Say. We. All." The crew replied with as much energy as I did. "Are they the Lucky ones? That's what you're all thinking isn't it?" I paused for a moment. "We've travelled far beyond what any Starfleet vessel has ever done so before. We have no ally's, no relief and no hope of returning home for the foreseeable future." The crew gave an uncomfortable shuffle in response. "Maybe It would have been better to have died a quick death amongst friends' during our skirmish with the Borg, Instead of travelling through the depths of dark space." I turned quickly towards the preacher. "Preacher tell me what does that uniform you wear represent?"

"The Federation and its founding principles." I smiled. "We're here alive, some of the best and the brightest Starfleet has to offer, I will say this, we will make it home, we will see our families once more, but while we search for our answers, we'll seek out new life and new civilisations while we do, we will live to tell the younger generations that we…. We were here and we were the first, every new horizon we see, every surface we stand upon, every record we make will show we were the first! So mourn the lost for today, but hold your heads high tomorrow, you are all Starfleet officers and remember that they are watching over all of us! So we had best do them proud as fellow officers." I walked back to my place amongst the officers. "So. Say. We. All."

The crew had become energised some hope and a sense of duty restored, the journey ahead was going to be a trial by fire that was a certainty, but like I said the crews of the Venator and Acclemator we're some of the best Starfleet had to offer, it would take another hour for the Venator to position itself towards the sun with well over a thousand coffins laid upon her primary hanger floor the air pressure had been dropped enough that a thousand or so coffins wouldn't be launched from the deck at ballistic speeds, this was one of the largest single send-off's any Starfleet vessel had completed and it went off without a hitch. Every crewmen saluted the dead as they made their way towards their next great adventure.

I stood by the main window of the Venator's ten forward. "It was a fine speech Admiral." A slightly familiar voice spoke beside me. "I just re-used and adapted a speech I saw once as a twelve year old." I replied honestly looking to my right I looked upon the newly promoted Captain Zodez. "I know two Klingon's amongst the dead would've been honoured from the words you spoke, they weren't too soft spoken, they had power, meaning and a modicum of grace to them, much like a Klingon burial song." I was actually stunned a bit by Zodez's words. "Thank you I thought Klingon's only did a warning war cry during the death of a fellow Klingon, no offence intended."

"None taken Admiral, Burial songs are familial in nature unique and intimate they are only sung amongst blood of the deceased." Zodez responded, as I was mentally filing that tad-bit of information for myself. "Ah sorry for intruding Admiral I must return to my duties." I saluted Zodez who responded in kind, before making her way to one of the two rear shuttle bays where a shuttle from the Acclemator was probably waiting for her to depart back to the ship. Looking at the glass of whisky I had in my right hand I gave an informal salute to the dead before downing the last of the drink.

"Time for me to try and get some fucking answers, that temporal rift had Q's name written on the bloody thing."

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To Be Continued….


	2. Chapter 2

The USS Enterprise has undergone many reincarnations over the past centuries but one thing has always stayed the same…. The Enterprise has always been the first to ward off danger, each and every time, the NX-01 against the Xindi, the Enterprise A against Kahn, the Big E against Shinzon's Scimitar and the Enterprise F during the Iconian Invasion…. – Excerpt from the Thoughts of the Admiralty.

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Stardate:97244 _._ 69  
Reach Sector

 _Captain's Personal Log: Stardate 97244.69 Both the Venator and Acclemator have remained in the reach system for several days two of the planets in system showed great promise one Class-M capable of sustaining simple lifeforms with plenty of edible fruits and vegetables that we have used to restock our lost fresh food stores after two of our storage bays had been opened to vacuum, the other is a Class-D with large deposits of heavy metals capable of being used to manufacture minor, major and critical ship components if the ship was to ever be damaged to the extent when we arrived, needless to say both the ships chef's and engineers seem happier considering the unexpected resupply of missing stores; the science teams have also been granted time on the surface to study the lifeforms of Reach before burying a Section 31 black box and beacon as a potential guide if Starfleet were to somehow re-open the special anomaly.  
As of right now the crew is taking it a day at a time however if we are here for an extended length of time as the Admiral believes, it has been unanimously agreed that plans should be put in place to build a ourselves a sanctuary station should our search for a way home fail's._

Finishing her Report Captain Hstokk turned from her personal terminal in her well-kept officers' quarters aboard the Venator and looked towards the Continental world that occupied her quarters windows, a giant meteor crater sat on the edge of the largest land mass creating an almost complete circle which had filled with sea water where the two tips failed to meet this place had been named 'Blue Bay' by a human crewmen of the Acclemator; this is where a good chunk of the ships science teams had set up camp for the past few days, testing, observing and documenting the planets indigenous life.  
Standing from her desk the tan furred captain walked stark naked around her personal quarters, as a Caitian this was the social norm of the species in fact it was expected of them in their clan homes, to show fellow clansmen that nothing was hidden from one another, the exceptions being military and state secrets for obvious reasons, in fact Caitian's as a whole found the clothes worn by other species as restrictive compared to their own; thus a compromise had been brokered for all Caitian's joining the Federation Navy, the clothes issued by the federation were loose and allowed as much bare skin as possible to be shown, even the shoe's issued to Caitian's and other digitigrade species were more like pull over coverings that left the "toe's" and pads to show, the regulations also stated while Caitian's were in their quarters they were permitted to be undressed as it is their social right.

Stepping to her ornate bookshelf Hstokk browsed through her collection of Hardback books to find her next read when she spotted three books simply titled IV A New Hope, V The Empire Strikes Back and VI The Return of the Jedi, being curious she pulled IV off of the shelf and opened the front cover, inside was a sticky note. 'You looked a little confused by my antics, all humans grow up with STAR WARS it's a cultural thing give them a read. From FADM Spruce.' Smirking at the thought of the Admiral's antics she was also slightly bewildered when did the Admiral have time to sneak into her room, shrugging to herself she read the blurb while trekking to her replicator. "Caitian Mesa wine chilled." She waited a few seconds for the replicator to finish her order before seating herself in her leather lean back chair, before settling into it.

Hours would pass without her realising it before long her rooms automatic night shift settings activated letting her know it was 23:00 hours, finishing the chapter she placed a bookmark so she could remember her place, within a few minutes the Caitian captain was resting in her bed waiting for tomorrows shift to begin.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Ready Room, I was busying myself with my reports when I'd been informed that the groundside crewmen would be returning to both ships to get underway; I'd also been informed that the Section 31 beacon was active and transmitting its position on Starfleet encrypted sub-channels waiting for any federation vessel to receive, smiling to myself at the small victories I made myself presentable before moving into the bridge, I watched as swarms of shuttles made their entry through the primary hanger as soon as the last shuttle had been secured I had a comm channel opened to the Acclemator, the top left of the corner of the view screen showed the face of the Acclemator's Executive Officer a female Denobulan. "Commander Pathfinder is a go, let's see if there is any intelligent life out amongst the stars." The female Denobulan smiled, saying "Aye sir." Before having the co-ordinates relayed to the Venator's Navigations officer. "Lead the way Commander."

The full image of the view screen returned showing the build-up of energy to the nacelles before vanishing in a flash of light. "Helm tail the Acclemator by five kilometres then match speed." The Andorian helmsmen nodded before manipulating the keys on his console, the Venator following his commands entered warp a scant few seconds after the Acclemator had, the Venator quickly caught up with the Acclemator before holding position half a kilometre above the Acclemator and five kilometres behind her, looking left the Venator's Commander Mareel sat in the executive officers chair beside me, he had been promoted once Captaincy of the Acclemator fell to the newly promoted Captain Zodez, the man was senior to me in age with salt and pepper hair and matching goatee wearing a leather eye patch over his left eye.  
"Commander you have the bridge while I finish my reports in the Ready Room, comm me when we arrive in system." The grizzled commander replied with an "Aye sir." Letting me return to the Ready Room, I quickly made myself comfortable before continuing with my reports for a couple of hours, needless to say paperwork isn't the stellar part of being an officer but it had to be done, otherwise shit starts falling apart real quick nothing could be done about it and since the Iconian War a lot more came with the higher the rank you held, Fleet Admirals especially had a paperwork capacity of nearly ten officers so I rarely had time to myself to enjoy.  
Time was slowly but surely passing, I had completed my reports for the day and I had enough time for some study into contacting the Q continuum before getting an hours kip, my comm badge chirped so I pressed my right hand onto it to answer. "Admiral Spruce here."

"Admiral it's Commander Mareel, we've just arrived in system sir." Came Mareel's response. "On my way." I replied before making my way to the bridge.

Weeks would pass by without incident or first contact with any intelligent life until both the Acclemator and Venator picked up a high frequency transmission in the next system, both ships dropped out into a system sized nebula which would've played havoc on regular sensor's, luckily the nebula didn't interfere with the advanced sensor array atop of the Acclemator, this was when both Captain Hstokk and I were asked to report to the bridge over our private channels, shifting from my bed I quickly donned my white Starfleet uniform before rubbing my face a slight stubble sat on my face unfortunately I hadn't the time to shave. "Coffee two sugars." I said aloud passing my rooms replicator grabbing the mug as soon as it had materialised.  
I was on the ships bridge in no time looking at the view screen as soon as I stepped into the bridge, Hstokk and the rest of the bridge crew were looking upon a scan of a ship that was being fed through the sensor array of the Acclemator, it was a design I was familiar with, large hexagonal superstructure four MAC cannons two heavy two medium, dozens upon dozens of secondary gun and missile pod mounts alongside several landing bays, a hull composed of Titanium A and a size comparable to the Venator herself, heavily scarred with plasma damage to the battle plate a few breeches to some of the ships outer compartments.  
The clincher wouldn't be until I had a modified 'stealth' probe launched to show live images of the vessel and there upon its broadside sat the name UNSC EVEREST. "Well shit." Was all I said attracting the attention of everyone on the bridge including Captain Zodez who's image was sat in the top left corner of the view screen. "It's a Valiant class Super Heavy Cruiser it's role is that of a command ship, its operated by the United Nations Space Command, and is captained by one Admiral Preston J Cole, it's four main guns fire six hundred tonne tungsten-ferrite slugs at point four percent the speed of light, its crew is completely human and they are highly xenophobic to any alien race due to a bloody first contact, they've been at war with said aliens for thirty years and their gradually losing."

"How do you know?" Hstokk asked me. "Because my home verse knows about the verse where this ship has come from." The Captain's both nodded in response while filing the information I had given them, after all stranger shit occurs often in the Federation, case and point the Venator and Acclemator's current predicament. "Check to see if that high intensity signal is an automated distress message being sent out?" seconds later the comms officers on both the Venator and Acclemator had the ships automated distress beacon playing throughout the bridge. "Comms open a channel on this frequency let's see if I can grab the attention of the ships AI or pre-programmed systems. "Comm channel open Admiral." Responded the Rigelan comms officer. "This is Fleet Admiral Spruce of the Venator, responding to your distress message we are a task force of two vessels, we will approach from your portside and hold at a distance of twenty kilometres do not fire I repeat do not fire."

"Fleet Admiral Spruce this is UNSC AI Athena, state your race and intentions!" Came a clearly female voice through the channel. "I am human however my crew is a mix of multiple species who are friendly to Humans, to prove this I was born in Halifax, England on Earth, Sol System home of humanity." A few seconds later a sigh came though. "You know I'm relieved to hear a friendly voice after all this time, we've been drifting towards UNSC space for three years now. How did you find us?" Athena asked. "Pure luck Athena, we just chanced upon you over an hour ago. I promise to explain what I know when we meet face to face Athena, we will continue approach and match your course and speed we will hold position twenty kilometres from your portside, contact us through this frequency when your Commanding officer is ready to open a dialogue."

* * *

UNSC Everest, Unknown Sector  
Date: April 22 2546 [Military Calendar]

Athena dressed in her Greek styled toga, was in a word relieved when the Emergency Beacon had been responded to by a human claiming to be a Fleet Admiral and true to Fleet Admiral Spruce's words his two vessels had matched course and speed twenty kilometres away from the Everest's portside, both vessels were unlike anything recorded into the UNSC Database, but both ships were in a roundabout way human, especially when her secondary gun cam's spotted the larger ship's distinct red war stripes and gun metal grey hull, while the second lacked the same war stripes it had a similar gun metal grey only UNSC vessels have, the power levels both ships gave outclassed the Everest several times over and their visible means of propulsion were unique looking to say the least, the crew was currently thawing out from their extended cryo sleep; the Admiral alongside the bridge and engineering crews being the first to bring the ship up to operational status.  
The bridge doors eventually opened up to allow the greying Admiral access donning a cap and dress greys with markings denoting his rank Preston J Cole was back in command and he seemed genuinely happy about it. "Athena Status report?" Athena smiled as she turned to face the admiral as she floated above the war table. "The Everest is warming up Admiral, she's a little sluggish considering her reactor has been on low power for three years, primary MAC cannons are loaded and gradually building up a charge we have 60% of our secondary munitions and 40% of our missiles remaining; we also have twelve nukes in storage, the crew is thawing out and as you've no doubtedly seen on the table we have two vessels sitting alongside our portside Admiral labelled Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 respectively." The Admiral was contemplating his options before responding to Athena. "What can you tell me about the vessels?" Cole asked.

"Alpha 1 or the U.S.S Venator from her registration plate seems like a dedicated Carrier of sorts a large broadside hanger bay which I can assume is matched on the other side, with four nacelles to the rear purpose unknown, however the ship is using what I can speculate to be Impulse drives as her means of sub-light propulsion, Alpha 2 or the U.S.S. Acclemator also from the name plate follows the same aesthetics however with two nacelles both Vessels are under the Command of a Fleet Admiral Spruce who claims to be human; he gave solid evidence that checks out somewhat on my end the rest of his crew he claims to be a mixed bag of species all 'friendly' with humanity, they've been sat 20 kilometres away since they arrived and have made no invasive scans other than to check the status of the ship." Athena replied.

"Preliminary threat assessment?" Cole asked Athena with genuine worry. "Their generating power you would need to power two super MAC cannons apiece with enough to spare, that power has to go somewhere my best guess is both ships have shields and energy weapons." Cole grimaced at the words sure the Everest was a tough ship but two ships armed with energy weapons and shields the odds weren't in their favour. "At least their being friendly, have they said anything?" Cole wanted every advantage he could get if things turned sour. "Beside asking you to contact the Admiral at your earliest convenience I've intercepted nothing but light chatter between the two ships nothing to suggest their planning an attack." Thinking for a moment or two the Admiral nodded to himself, his questioning had allowed all of the bridge staff to attend to their posts, waiting for orders. "Alright Athena, patch me through to their Admiral." Nodding the AI was quiet for a moment. "You're on Admiral."  
"This is Admiral Cole to whom am I speaking." Admiral Cole waited for few seconds before a distinctly British voice came through the speakers. "Admiral Cole this is Admiral Spruce, you're on conference call with myself Captain Hstokk and Captain Zodez of the U.S.S Venator and the U.S.S. Acclemator respectively it's good to hear your voice." Admiral Spruce responded. "Better to hear yours Admiral, what can I do for you?" Cole replied trying to gage what the Admiral wanted. "I was kind of hoping for a face to face, I'd like to bring a side arm another officer with a side arm and two Marines aboard so we can clear any issues in person, the two marines will be non-human while my second will be human is this acceptable?"

"Yes I can agree to that on the condition they be armed with nothing more than a rifle and a side arm, I'll have my marines notified not to fire upon them on arrival you have my word." Cole notified Admiral Spruce genuinely. "Thank you Admiral I'll be arriving via shuttlecraft to a landing bay of your specification." The British Admiral replied. "Bay 2 it will be marked with strobing lights."

"Thank you Admiral Cole Expect us there within fifteen minutes."

* * *

To be continued….


End file.
